1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a knock down display structure die cut from corrugated board and foldable from an initially flat, collapsed orientation into an assembled configuration for use. More particularly, the invention concerns a means for connecting a shelf portion of the display to an upright, rear support by advantageously aligning the columnar strength presented the corrugated support with the columnar strength of an upright member portion which bears on an edge of the support and which sustains the shelf portion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Display structures and racks formed from corrugated board are widely used in retail establishments for displaying merchandise in an attractive and eye-catching manner. Disposable displays formed from corrugated board are particularly advantageous in that each display can be custom-built to the proper dimensions for displaying the goods with a maximum exposure of each article and with a minimum of wasted rack space and corrugated board material. Moreover, the low cost of such displays allows the retailer to justify disposing of the structure once the goods are sold and the display is no longer needed.
Oftentimes, the manufacturer of goods will ship a display in a flat, knocked down configuration within a shipping carton that also includes the goods to be sold, primarily so that the display and the goods are conveniently kept together during shipping and storage until the time has arrived for assembling the display and offering the goods for sale. As a consequence, point-of-purchase displays are often assembled by relatively inexperienced store personnel, and therefore it is important to provide display structures that are easily assembled without utilizing components that would excessively increase the overall cost of the display.
In the majority of display structures, a shelf is provided for supporting the merchandise to be sold, and the shelf extends in a horizontal direction or in a direction slightly inclined in respect to horizontal. In some instances, the shelf is supported in an elevated position by an adjacent, upstanding rear panel or by two side panels of the structure. Occasionally, separate clips or fasteners are utilized to connect the shelf to upstanding panels, but more typically tabs extending integrally outwardly from the shelf are provided for reception into slots formed in the upstanding panels, in order to reduce the number of component parts and keep costs at a minimum.
In the past, known displays having shelves with tabs that connect to adjacent upright supports were often constructed in such a fashion that the tabs are relatively short and were intended to remain in a horizontal orientation co-planar with the major regions of the shelf. In other cases, however, the tabs of such shelves were of a somewhat longer length so that each tab could be inserted through a slot in the upright panels, bent at a 90-degree angle, and inserted through a second slot in the panel in an opposite direction.
Unfortunately, horizontally extending tabs which are received in slots of adjacent upright panels and which are relied upon to provide support for a shelf often collapse and fail unless the articles placed upon the shelf are collectively relatively light in weight. Failure of the tabs is due primarily to the structural configuration of the corrugated board which, in many cases, comprises two flat face sheets interconnected by an intermediate corrugated panel. Boards of this type are commonly manufactured from paper or paper composites and thus the beams or columns formed by the alternating series of ridges and grooves of the corrugated panel in combination with the two flat face sheets have a relatively low resistance to bending in directions transverse to the longitudinal axes of the ridges and grooves and the planes of the respective face sheets.
As a result, when corrugated display structures are constructed having a shelf with integral, horizontal tabs received in horizontal slots of an upright support panel, goods placed on the shelf often cause the corrugated tabs to bend, even when the longitudinal axes of the ridges and grooves of the tabs are oriented in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the upright support panels and the slots formed therein. In order to overcome this problem, extra support members may be placed underneath the shelf or other types of fasteners may be utilized in conjunction with the tabs, but both of these solutions unacceptably increase the overall cost of the display which is in reality intended to be disposable and therefore relatively low in cost.